Upholding Transparency and Trust in Public Safety Technology

At Flock Safety, we are committed to partnering with communities to enhance safety while maintaining transparency, accountability, and respect for democratically-elected governing bodies to adhere to local laws and values. Recent audits in Illinois raised important concerns about how license plate reader (LPR) data from several agencies across the state was accessed and shared. 

We take these concerns seriously and have already taken decisive steps to address them.

We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with Illinois officials to clarify what happened, correct misconceptions, and implement lasting improvements that uphold the trust of both law enforcement agencies and the residents they serve.

What Happened: Clarifying a Misunderstanding

Flock Safety provides LPR technology to law enforcement agencies nationwide. In Illinois, state law imposes strict limits on how data can be accessed and shared—requirements we embed in our product design and customer agreements.

Recently, there has been misreporting that a Texas police officer with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office used LPR “to target people seeking reproductive healthcare.” According to the Sheriff himself, that reporting is unequivocally false.

According to the Sheriff’s office, a local family called and said their relative had self-administered an abortion, and then she ran away. Her family feared she was hurt, and asked the deputy to search for her to the best of their abilities. Law enforcement performed a nationwide search in Flock, the broadest search possible within the system, to try to locate her quickly. Luckily, she was found safe and healthy in Dallas a couple of days later.

No charges were ever filed against the woman and she was never under criminal investigation by Johnson County. She was being searched for as a missing person, not as a suspect of a crime. Finding missing people is an important use case of this system — Flock LPRs have been used to find 1,000+ missing people across the country.

Flock remains committed to making sure every jurisdiction can use these tools in a way that reflects their local laws and values. However, concerns were subsequently raised that some out-of-state agencies had accessed Illinois data for impermissible reasons, despite affirming compliance with Illinois law (625 ILCS 5/2 - 130) within the Flock system. While Flock Safety does not independently determine or authorize user searches, we immediately took action when we identified agencies that used impermissible search terms.

What Flock Safety Has Already Done

1. Immediate Removal of Access

Flock conducted an internal audit of agencies that had access to Illinois data. If any agency was found to have:

• Affirmed compliance with Illinois law, and
  
  
• Conducted multiple searches using reasons impermissible under Illinois law,

then their access to Illinois data was revoked.

Since we initiated the audit in May, 47 agencies have been removed from access to Illinois data.

We have been collaborating with the Sec. of State's office to ensure oversight over how and when Illinois LPR data is accessed and used, as guided by state law. Flock takes compliance seriously, and we welcome the opportunity to continue working with Secretary Giannoulias’ office on promoting best practices around LPR use. 

2. Customer Education and Retraining

To prevent further misunderstandings or misuse:

• All out of state agencies with access to Illinois data are being re-educated  on Illinois-specific legal requirements and product functionality.
  
  
• New emphasis is placed on responsible sharing, with updated training content, in-product guidance, and communications to reinforce compliance.

New Product Solutions to Strengthen Compliance

Proactive Search Term Tool (Launched June 12, 2025)

Immediately following these incidents, our Product team deployed a new safeguard that will block impermissible searches from accessing Illinois data in real time. Here’s how it works:

• All Flock system searches require a “search reason.” This is part of our longstanding focus on transparency and accountability.
  
  
• If a search involving Illinois camera data includes terms that indicate an impermissible purpose under Illinois law, the Illinois data will automatically be excluded.

This proactive measure significantly reduces the risk of inadvertent misuse.

AI-Powered Auditing Alerts (Coming by End of 2025)

To support agencies with limited resources for audit monitoring, we are developing a new AI-based tool that:

• Identifies unusual or suspicious search activity,
  
  
• Sends real-time updates to administrators,
  
  
• Enables proactive compliance monitoring without manual review burdens.

This tool will help agencies maintain transparency and accountability at scale. 

Allowing Agencies to Require Case Numbers (Coming by End of 2025)

To promote additional accountability, prevent misuse, and make identifying unallowed searches easier, we are also instituting an option for agencies to elect to require a case number for any searches conducted in the system. 

Promoting Shared Responsibility Through Education

We are working with the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police (ILACP) to collaborate on an education and training campaign to promote best practices on LPR use, auditing, and compliance. This effort would include:

• Informational materials and messaging about responsible technology use,
  
  
• Integration of ethical best practices into agency onboarding,
  
  
• Public events to explain how LPR technology works, and
  
  
• Ongoing communications to promote transparency and community trust.

Supporting Broader Legislative Action

Flock Safety is not the only LPR provider operating in Illinois. To ensure consistent standards across the state, we support legislation across the country that: 

• Reinforces clear compliance expectations,
  
  
• Promotes statewide audit capabilities, and
  
  
• Strengthens privacy protections for residents.

We stand ready to be a partner in shaping legislation that makes Illinois a national model for ethical, transparent public safety technology.

Our Commitment to Illinois Communities

At Flock Safety, we believe technology can—and must—serve the public good. Our commitment to Illinois communities is unwavering:

• We will continue to refine our products and policies to uphold compliance.
  
  
• We will act swiftly to correct misuse when it occurs.
  
  
• We will work openly with partners to promote trust, safety, and transparency.

We’re proud to support communities and law enforcement agencies across Illinois and are committed to doing so in a way that respects every community’s values and laws.